I really like the tone of red — a weird kind of terracotta — coming through the washed out aqua. It’s quite unexpected but works. The dirty greeny-yellow of the window blind in the second picture makes the mix even more interesting. Its just one of many unusual colour combinations that I came across on my recent trip to the Motherland. Every corner you turned down held a new surprise. Beautiful.

Alessandro Dell’ Aqua N. 21

Yes, him of the waters. It seems a bit nothing, and it kind of is — the slogan tee.

However, I quite like the way it plays with Chanelism. Black on white. N. 05. Etc.

Somehow cool.

I apologize, once again!

No excuses this time. The Lazy Blogger has sunk further into languor’s apathetic embrace. Well, new year, new beginnings, and all that.

It so happens that I’ve been home. Real home, the Motherland, so to speak. I’ll keep the name of this country anonymous – let’s just say that its somewhere in West Africa. It’d been so long since I last went that I got scared of going – a vicious cycle that kept on spiralling out of control. The longer I left it, the more scared I got. How stupid of me. I had the best time EVER. Don’t get me wrong, it was a shock to the system but it was exactly what I needed. There’ll be more on this later but I’ll leave you with a few images till the next time I check in. 

I’m not promising anything. It might be a while…!

TTFN. LFN

The circus has rolled in once more, along with it the usual cast of characters – ringmaster, clown and magicians. As with any circus there is always The Good, The Bad and the Damned. OK, I made the last one up but “ugly” is a subjective thing. One man’s Beautiful is another’s Rodarte, ouch!

Anyway, I’ve got some ideas for posts on fashion week. One of them will be what I call The Barbie Syndrome -- female designers objectifying themselves. A bit like the Mugler fetishization of women in the 80s in reverse_

Talk about ghost-writing!

Yes its been a while for sure. A lot has happened in the last few months since I last clickety-clacked my trusty keyboard. Most of it good. Pretty much all of it good. Moving home, new projects and lots of amazing personal developments. But that hasn’t been the only reason I stopped blogging. To be honest, it had become boring. There’s an information overload out there and it can make your head hurt. I’ll hold my hand up as being a cyber-vulture with the best of them, preying on the “deadflesh” of informed/uninformed writing, the speculations, the egoistical self-portraits of sweet-nothings fawning at their own self-fabulousness, stylists who seem to be more interested in self-styling than styling anything else. I could go on. But  that’s a narrow-minded stance to take. There is a lot of good out there: good-bloggers, great design, great people. Sometimes you have to take a step back.

Anyway, I hope my mojo comes back. And my preposition foibles. And my typos.

TTFN

LFN

Kiss all the pretty ones goodbye
Give everyone a penny that cry
You can throw all my tranquil’ pills away
Let my blood pressure go on its way

For my autumn’s done come

My autumn’s done come. Done come

Lee Hazlewood, 1966

A friend introduced me to this the other day and I haven’t stopped listening to it. You may have heard of The Weeknd but if you haven’t you probably would have sooner or later.

It was late at night, and we may or may not have had a dirty ciggie but we had most definitely knocked back a few glasses of “dirty” Pimms. Ah, the rites of spring. Anyway this friend of mine fancies himself as a bit of a master of the decks and was teaching me the basics of deejaying when he put this on.

The House of Balloons album has been causing quite a stir on the internet. For starters you can download the entire mixtape for free from The Weeknd’s website. Secondly, it seems to be breathing life into the jaded, tired world of r’n'b. Having said that, r’n'b seems too narrow a categorisation although Rhianna would give her right arm for opening track, “High for This”.

Fronted by vocalist Abel Testfaye, The Weeknd pour everything from fellow Canadian, Drake, to Massive Attack, Burial and R kelly into some sort of twisted sonic food processor to come up with a dark, seductive blend of of slow jams and electro. What really marks them out  are their disturbing, drug-infused lyrics. For instance, “High for This” has Testfaye cooing: Hold tight, for this ride/ we don’t need no protection…. open your hand, take a glass, don’t be scared, i’m right here/ even though, you don’t want, trust me girl, you wanna be high for this.

Like I said, dark stuff.

They offer a peek into a nightmarish world of kinky sex, perversion and self-loathing. Not immediately sexy and definitely not one for the kids but Testfaye’s almost angelic lilt is a Trojan horse that you kind of want to let in_

download here>>

http://the-weeknd.com/

There’s been quite a few amazing designer retrospectives as of late: YSL, Vionnet, Yohji Yamamoto, the 30 Years of Japanese design at the Barbican in London, the new Alexander McQueen… And now Madame Grés. Or Alix as she was known at the start of her career.

Its on at the Musée Bourdelle, near the Tour Montparnasse in Paris till July.

I was actually there on Monday with some friends but stupidly forgot that this was Paris and some museums are shut then. Ah, well, you live and learn! It looks amazing from the pictures I’ve seen. Apparently Madame Grés always wanted to be a sculptress hence the poetic display of 80 pieces of her incredibly draped dresses and minimalist sheathes amongst the grecian sculptures at the museum. In my opinion she did achieve her goal, sculpting out of cloth these intricate forms. Like Madeleine Vionnet she was a trailblazer that liberated women from the restrictive corset and she is probably the only couturier of her time you could still wear today and not look like you were wearing “vintage”. Master class. Can’t wait to see it!

Madame Grés:

“La Couture à L’Oeuvre”

Musée Bourdelle

16 rue Antoine Bourdelle

75015 PARIS

image above, Irving Penn, Inventive Paris Clothes 1909-1939 [The Viking Press, 1977]

Circa 1993 there was one album that no fashion show, elegant soirée, discerning music head, chill out lounge from Brighton to Ibiza wouldn’t beg, borrow or steal from — the legendary K&D Sessions by Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister. This double disc “tome” of an album contained remixes of songs by Bone Thugs ‘n” Harmony through to Lamb and it achieved that Holy Grail of music by producing versions that were arguably equal to and that sometimes surpassed the originals. I own two copies, having worn the first one out . They sit next to other 90s gems such as DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing and Aim’s Cold Water Music. The K&D Sessions put paid to the idea that trip-hop/ lounge music/ chill out was nothing but muzak for the chi-chi dinner parties of the middle-aged middle class. This was as refined and absolute as music got. Nearly 20 years on and it still sounds as fresh as it did back then.

Don’t you just love record shops? Disque Records on Chapel Market in Islington, London (sadly closed down like a hundred other indies.) Browsing the racks and coming across something you’ve always wanted but never got round to buying. Or that rare/ out of circulation album you’d been trying to get your stinky paws on. Or just something unexpected that takes your fancy… Last year I was in a similar store in Italy, similarly now closed, browsing the racks, making a selection as was my tradition whenever I was in that neck of the woods. It was then that I came across this_

WHOA!!! If I’d been sitting down I would have fallen off my chair! Knees turned to jelly, mouth dried out, eyelashes flicked overdrive. G-Stone MASTER SERIES No 1: Peter Kruder Private Collection. I’d already mentally reached for my credit card, rushed back to my hotel room and popped this bad boy into my MacBook before even picking up said disc. That unwavering is my trust for the Kruder /Dorfmeister/ Huber ability to deliver first class every time. [Together Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber form TOSCA,  another genius sonic partnership.]

The disc promised to be a selection of tracks that Peter Kruder would play you if you were a guest in his home. I mean, how sexy does that sound? This was going to be an esoteric, eccentric melange of sounds. A treat! And indeed it was. From the opening track, Talk Talk’s The Rainbow, to the vocal masterpiece by Rokia Traore that closes the compilation it was a slightly strange but nevertheless engaging experience. There’s that phrase when a designer shows a collection so directional that it “changes your eye”, as The New York Times’ Cathy Horyn is so fond of saying. Well this album “changes your ear”.

Other than being a wonderful collection of songs that defy easy categorisation, it comes beautifully presented in a box. Each track has its accompanying square postcard with a note about why it was chosen and an image shot by Peter Kruder himself. Jammy bastard, he’s also a great photographer as well_

images by Peter Kruder.

NEXT UP_

Kruder’s other half, Richard Dorfmeister, fights back with his own selection of music for the second in the G-Stone Master Series. I’ve already seen the playlist on their website. This is GONNA BE GOOD. Opening track, Vladimir Cosma’s Promenade Sentimentale from  the soundtrack to Jean-Jaques Beineix’s 1981 film, Diva, is a Satie-esque riff of dreamy, loopy piano notes. You can read my piece on the film by clicking >> HERE.

The album’s out on the 31st of March and you can download it then on SOUL SEDUCTION or hunt down the disc version. Or both, like I’ll be doing. Absolutely worth every centime, nickel or dime.

www.g-stoned.com

Exit 29_

Perfect. White suit. Bianca Jagger fast forward >> 2012. Ice cool.

Perfect proportions, perfect casting [Karmen Pedaru (ELITE)].

PERFECT MOMENT.

Image Marcus Tondo/GoRunway/Style.com